Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

When a coyote visits your neighborhood, don’t put out the welcome mat.

05—If the coyotes are coming into a residential area, and you see one, first off – try to scare it.

Brett Johnson is an urban wildlife biologist in Dallas County.

21—They’re not these frightening animals that are out to hurt you. So, if you see one, yell at it and either hit it with water from a water hose, or the other option is to throw something in its general direction. Be it a small stick, in some cases if you have to, even a small rock. Not something that’s going to hurt the animal…but just something where that animal feels a physical contact in addition to your yelling.

After creating this negative association with humans, it’s important to try and figure out why they’re attracted to the neighborhood.

20—If they’re coming through a neighborhood and they’ve decided to stay there, usually that means they’ve found an abundant food source of some variety. And in an urban area, that usually means they’re going after pet food. So, there, the simple thing is, we have to change some of our human behavior and not leave a constant source of pet food outside all the time.

Tomorrow: protecting pets from visiting coyotes.

The Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our show…and is funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuels…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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